The Blues Brothers  Chicago Filming Locations

Arguably the greatest  perhaps the only  action-musical-comedy film ever made, The Blues Brothers owes much of its spirit to the use of genuine Chicago locations to depict Chicago  and not the sites City Hall wants the world to see, like Navy Pier and Millennium Park, but instead the grimy underbelly: the steel mills, flophouses, and back alleys that make up the real character of the city.

Not only did this movie utilise the city more extensively than any other film before or since, it captured images that will never again be seen in a movie, such as hundred-plus-mile-an-hour drives down Lake Street and madcap police car pile-ups under the tracks of the ‘L’. Certainly today the massive invasion of Daley Plaza could never take place, and would be relegated to the phony world of CGI special effects.

Many of the sites listed here have changed significantly since 1979, and some have been lost forever. So next time you watch the movie, enjoy the music, the laughs, the wild car chases  but also watch the backgrounds to see a moment in time of a great American city.